Posted
by
Soulskillon Sunday December 08, 2013 @03:10AM
from the plans-for-eagle-bbq-restaurant-already-underway dept.

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Lindsay Abrams reports at Salon that the Obama administration is offering wind farms 30 years of leeway to kill and harm bald and golden eagles. The new regulations, which were requested by the wind industry, will provide companies that seek a permit with legal protection, preventing them from having to pay penalties for eagle deaths (PDF). An investigation by the Associated Press earlier this year documented the illegal killing of eagles around wind farms, the Obama administration's reluctance to prosecute such cases and its willingness to help keep the scope of the eagle deaths secret. President Obama has championed the pollution-free energy, nearly doubling America's wind power in his first term as a way to tackle global warming. Scientists say wind farms in 10 states have killed at least 85 eagles since 1997, with most deaths occurring between 2008 and 2012, as the industry was greatly expanding. Most deaths — 79 — were golden eagles that struck wind turbines. However the scientists said their figure is likely to be 'substantially' underestimated, since companies report eagle deaths voluntarily and only a fraction of those included in their total were discovered during searches for dead birds by wind-energy companies. The National Audubon Society said it would challenge the decision."

A not altogether unbiased source [eneweconomy.com.au] has a handy comparison of bird deaths between wind, nukes, and fossil fuels. This is the thing all this hoopla about bird deaths on wind farms conveniently overlooks: the number of wildlife deaths from other industries -- how many birds died in the Deepwater Horizon spill, by the way? -- vastly outpaces those from windmills.

Yes, it's sad, and I would like to see them mitigated. But it's the same idiocy that makes people compare three high-speed collisions in Tesla Model S fires to the tens of thousands of fires that happen every year in ICEs with nary a peep.

but the wind-farms are a question of survival of the human civilization.

Hardly. If windfarms dropped off the face of the earth, you might need to find 1-3% from somewhere else, like hydro plants sitting idle, or from nuclear reactors which have been shutdown or furloughed for maintenance. Hell, in Ontario we produce so much electricity that we sell it at a 75% loss to the US, and we're not even at peak generating capacity. In fact, these "green energy" programs [ctvnews.ca] are going to drive up our electricity prices by 42% in the next 5 years. [canadiancontent.net]

Do you hear that sounds? It's the death of manufacturing and industry where I live.

I'm as green as anyone, but lordy that was some one-sided summary Hugh. Can I at least ask for some other numbers, such as the number of bird kills resulting from pollutants dumped out by the big coal fired plants in Ohio?

This law, originally passed in 1940, provides for the protection of the bald eagle and the golden eagle by prohibiting the take, possession, sale, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, of any bald or golden eagle, alive or dead, including any part, nest, or egg, unless allowed by permit Bald Eagle sitting in tree (16 U.S.C. 668(a); 50 CFR 22). "Take" includes pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb (16 U.S.C. 668c; 50 CFR 22.3). The 1972 amendments increased civil penalties for violating provisions of the Act to a maximum fine of $5,000 or one year imprisonment with $10,000 or not more than two years in prison for a second conviction. Felony convictions carry a maximum fine of $250,000 or two years of imprisonment. The fine doubles for an organization. Rewards are provided for information leading to arrest and conviction for violation of the Act.

In other news (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3033412/posts), an Indiana man was charged this week with the unlawful possession of a bald eagle, which the man says he cared for and rescued from the mud pit in which it was trapped. The former Department of Natural Resources employee, Jeffrey Henry, could face up to 60 days of jail time and a $500 fine as part of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

BP has spent in excess of $20bn to aid cleanup, their executive team got axed, their share price is valued below the sum total value of the company's assets and they are still in the process of one lawsuit after another.

I took a tour to a wind farm as a kind of fact finding when they were trying to put one in my area (eventually killed by NIMBY's, none of which went on any of the offered tours). Sure they make noise but your example is quite accurate, its about as much as wind through trees. Standing with one looming overhead it was barely perceivable with no traffic, no trees in the area and everyone quite from a just finished speech from one of the guides. Even standing right at the base it was less noise then you would have standing by a maple on a mildly windy fall day. We were told that some atmospheric conditions could significantly increase the noise (humidity, low temperatures) but if it can increase turbine noise it probably increases other local noises as well (traffic, trees, etc).

Eagles really shouldn't be considered endangered. They're all over the place in Alaska / Canada -to the point where they are essentially a nuisance species (110 dB squawking at 0300 outside your window). The electrocute themselves on powerlines, get run over by cars (because they're stupid and slow) and mostly serve to impress tourists.